April 17, 2011

Broadcast Date: 
Apr 17 2011

A Passover special exploring the theme of seeking freedom across decades, geographical borders and musical genres.

Episode segments
  • Declassified FBI Transcripts
    Foreign Policy, Global Justice, Labor, National Politics, Domestic Policy, Civil Rights

    Our readers were:

    Itzik Gottesman (reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

    Peter Cramer (reading Bayard Rustin)

    Myra Mniewski (reading Stanley Levison)

    Eve Sicular (reading Andrew Young)

     
    Eve Sicular

    In these readings from declassified FBI transcripts of taped phone conversations civil rights leaders discuss whether and how Dr. King should speak out against the war in Vietnam and their concerns about its potential impact on the civil rights movement.

    BTP thanks Professor Gerald J. Meyer for research advise and AAVW.org for posting the transcripts.

  • My Perestroika
    Film, Arts & Culture

    Robin Hessman is the Director, Producer and Cinematographer of My Perestroika.  She received her graduate degree in film directing from the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow (with a “red diploma” of honors). She received an Academy Award® in 1994 – with co-director James Longley – for their student film, Portrait of Boy with Dog. During her eight years living in Russia, Robin worked for the Children’s Television Workshop as the on-site producer of Ulitsa Sezam, the original Russian-language Sesame Street.  My Perestroika is her feature-length documentary film debut.
    Eve Sicular

    My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.

    My Perestroika will be screening at IFC in Manhattan through Apri 22nd 2011.

  • List of the Music Played on Today's Show
    Music, Arts & Culture
    Eve Sicular

    Passover model seder recording, K'tav, 1951

    Hudl Mitn Strudel, an Aaron Lebedeff original, performed by Benjy Fox Rosen, Tick-Tock

    Miranda, Lionel Belasco, Goodnight Ladies and Gents

    Backlash Blues, Nina Simone (live)

    I Wish I Knew How It Would Be To Be Free, written by Billy Taylor & Dick Dallas. Originally recorded by Nina Simone in 1967 on her Silk & Soul album

    Two songs from the Triangle Fire Centenary:

    • Dray Neytorins [Three Seamstresses], Adrienne Cooper live with Flying Bulgars, "Fire" CD; lyrics by Y.L. Peretz (1852-1915), Music by M. Shneyer (1885-1942).  Published by M. Kipnis in 1918. Translated in Pearls of Yiddish Song, compiled by Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek. For translation click DRAY NEYTORINS (3 SEAMSTRESSES) SONG LYRICS.

    Tribute to Chiune Sughihara, music: excerpt from U. Ta. Ka. Ta. No. by Shoko Nagai

    Chunga-Changa was written by Vladimir Yakovlevich Shainsky a Soviet & Russian Jewish composer born on December 12, 1925 in Kiev [then in Ukrainian SSR], now living in Los Angeles. This song originally appeared in the Soviet cartoon "Katerok," and is also heard in Robin Hessman's documentary My Perestroika. Shainsky's many other compositions range from string quartet to musical setting for Yiddish lyrics by Yoysef Kerler to numerous beloved, warmly anthemic Soviet childrens' songs -- notably pieces for all the later Cheburashka"animation episodes -- as well as other music heard on the soundtrack of My Perestroika.

    S'iz Matsa do [Matse (Matzoh) is Here), sung by Lorin Sklamberg; written by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Af di Gasn Fun der Shtot  [On the Streets of the City]